Christmas, New Year & Being Merry...

Christmas was hectic, but completely lovely. Getting to Winchester on the train was a stormy adventure, involving fallen trees on train lines and ale to the rescue on the train, whilst being stuck at Basingstoke station for quite some time.

Once at our destination for Christmas, a wonderful time was had by all. Christmas morning was glorious, with a beautiful sunrise and crisp morning air.

Me and George ran across fields and through picturesque villages. Christmas was also spent making mince pies (they turned out pretty amazing, much to my surprise), walking in forests and around gorgeous countryside and drinking mulled wine and cider.

For New Years, it was back to London. The fireworks near the London Eye were absolutely amazing, but shortly after making our way home through the crowds of people and partygoers, me and George got separated and we got lost, with no phone battery left. Ultimately I found my way back via tube, but it is still scary. That same instinctual feeling of helplessness overwhelms you, like when you were a child and got separated from your parents in a crowd. All came good in the end. That is the main thing.

So, I’ve really been trying to seek out some good races and events for this year. I’ve got the Brathay Windermere Marathon in May and GUCR 145 miler a week later...I did this combination last year, so rest and ice bath-ness is the key to recovery with this one. I’ve also been making enquiries about the Liverpool to Leeds 130 mile-ish race. However, in the meantime I’m trying to up my mileage, whilst upping the speed. I’ve also been doing weights like crazy and have bought a weighted vest. We’re going hard-core this year :-)

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself - Plato

What have I been upto? Well I have been applying for a lot of jobs and I have been doing a lot of thinking. 

I have also been going to the gym quite a lot and have lost a bit of weight; not majorly but noticeably to me. It seems strange that not running such long distances could equate to weight loss, but I think our bodies just reach a certain point, perhaps, where we get used to the exercise we are doing & become more economical and fuel efficient/ our body almost goes into some sort of shock or safety mode and hangs onto some of the weight for fear of what may happen to it.  Well, this is what I can imagine my body doing whilst pounding out a lot of marathons and ultra’s. I can picture it, with a persona of its own, shaking its head stubbornly and going ‘Er, no, I will not burn that fat because basically I feel like you’re abusing me…’

But essentially, I have also just been breaking up my exercise and doing it more consistently throughout the week, with lots of weight work in there too.  I do think that would be an interesting study, if it hasn’t already been done, which I’m sure it must have on some scale: get someone to do a huge block of exercise in one go Vs. subject breaking up the same quota of exercise into smaller chunks throughout the week. Of course, stuff would be hard to figure out conclusively, but it’d make a sort of interesting case study. You could throw all sorts of variables into the equation. Also, I feel like I’ve not been eating as much which I think  is due to not having so many big events to run. I don’t feel the need to fuel up quite so much. And I haven’t been feeling as hungry. However, I think that’s a sensible approach. It makes sense to me that if you don’t need to fuel up for a lot of long steady miles then you shouldn’t.

The other night I had an awesome run down some pretty dark country roads. I love it. And at the same time it is slightly creepy. But how I have missed those early dark evenings and being able to run off and get your head torch out (held in my hand, because I feel silly). I thought I would be sensible and took my OMM waist pack with me – ensuring I looked like a real weirdo – and shoved a gel in there & my mobi, just in case I ended up falling into a bush or attacked by wild animals or something  :p  It would be most entertaining to do an off-road ultra in America when I’m so ‘concerned’ about the prospect of animals here haha…

Ultimately I managed to get in just over 8 sweaty miles. The sweaty bit is important. I felt I worked pretty hard out there the other night and it was fun. It was all on paved bits, but in the dark it almost feels like trail running because you’re out there in the countryside and constantly trying to dodge things and I like that. I do miss trail running. I need to get my trail shoes out and go get properly muddy. I’m thinking this weekend I may indeed get in a much overdue off-road run.

And I need to remind myself constantly that this slight hiccup in me being able to run lots of things I would like to run (but can’t; silly money) won’t be there forever. It really makes you appreciate the events you do get to do. I feel that next year there will be a big adventure in there somewhere. I don’t know what yet. I don’t know where. But there will be a big adventure and it’s out there somewhere…

 

  

The power of imagination makes us infinite. - John Muir